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The Chicken Squad is back for their sixth (mis)adventure, and this time there’s a headless bear on the loose and the Chicken Squad’s beloved Barbara has gone missing! A “lip-bitingly funny” (School Library Journal) chapter book from the bestselling author of Click, Clack, Moo and Cyclone.

It’s fall in the backyard, and though the weather is cooling down, the crime solving business is still hot. When the Chicken Squad’s neighbor Anna McClanahanahan comes looking for her missing hamster one morning, it’s an easy case to solve (Ziggy always takes a stroll from 6:30 to 7:15 a.m.). The Chicken Squad is now ready to settle in for a relaxing day of knitting—that is, until Ziggy points out that Barbara, the Chicken Squad’s caretaker—the one who FEEDS THEM!!—is missing! And not only that, but there have been sightings of a headless bear in the neighborhood! Will the Chicken Squad be able to save their beloved Barbara and get some breakfast? Or will this case be too much to bear?

Dirt paid careful attention to her knitting needles, counting the stitches as she went. She gave the yarn a big tug, and Sugar’s yellow head appeared from inside the rolling ball of rainbow yarn.

“What are you doing in my yarn??” asked Dirt, annoyed.

“It’s my new sweater–sleeping bag. I call it a sweating bag.”

“I’m using that yarn to knit everyone a scarf for the cooler weather,” said Dirt, giving the ball another pull. “I don’t think it should smell like chicken sweat!”

“Look, kid, at the end of the day, we all smell like chicken sweat. Besides, why do all that work?” asked Sugar, climbing out of the ball. “It’s perfect the way it is! Just toss everyone a ball of wool and call it a day.”

“Sugar’s right,” said Sweetie, her head appearing out of the top of a ball of rainbow-colored yarn. “They’re kind of perfect just the way they are.” Sweetie tipped backward and rolled down the ramp of the chicken coop.

Stephen Gilpin graduated from the NYC School of Visual Arts where he studied painting and cartooning. He is the illustrator of the Who Shrunk Daniel Funk series and The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy series. Stephen currently lives in Hiawatha, Kansas. Visit him at SGilpin.com.